Climate change is undeniably a significant and looming threat, impacting both the global environment and the stability of our economies and financial sector. There is an immediate and pressing need to comprehensively assess and effectively manage this multifaceted risk. Recently, we’ve seen a proactive response from regulatory bodies and standard-setting organizations worldwide, as they’ve taken… Read More »
Climate change is undeniably one of the most pressing challenges of our era. The scientific consensus regarding the urgency of addressing climate change has spurred international efforts to combat its effects. Central to this endeavor is the Paris Agreement, a historic international climate accord signed by 196 countries in 2015. This agreement aims to mitigate… Read More »
On July 9, 2020, a criminal complaint was filed against Joshua Thomas Argires, a Houston business owner, for submitting materially false loan applications to obtain and misuse funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Around May 2020, Mr. Argires opened an account in the name of Texas Barbecue at Coinbase and began trading crypto, ultimately… Read More »
Increasingly, sustainability standards are recognized as important tools for helping companies navigate the complex sustainability landscape. These standards help companies tackle their social and environmental challenges and serve as credible signals to stakeholders that they are doing the right thing, thus creating potential opportunities for the market to reward these companies. But what really… Read More »
Crypto assets exhibit considerable design and value proposition differences, ranging from inflation protection to facilitating more streamlined payments, ensuring censorship-resistant computing, and safeguarding property rights. Nevertheless, their prices often exhibit similar cyclical patterns. Surge periods with substantial returns have lured both retail and institutional investors. Meanwhile, the subsequent market downturns have garnered growing scrutiny from… Read More »
Text-based artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as GPT-4 enable tech-savvy laypeople to conduct tasks in complex domains with little prior experience. The financial sector, dealing with vast amounts of data daily, is among the industries most eagerly working on AI solutions. For example, Morgan Stanley’s asset management division was one of GPT-4’s first customers and… Read More »
Aligning financial market activity with policy and regulation interventions is necessary to foster an orderly transition to a carbon-free economy. For instance, within the European Green Deal strategy, the European Union Taxonomy provides firms, investors, and policymakers with detailed criteria to assess the environmental sustainability of economic activities concerning climate change mitigation and adaptation, among… Read More »
Green bonds are fixed-income securities issued by private corporations or public bodies (such as central banks or governments) to finance environmentally beneficial (“green”) projects. They are a relatively novel creation of international finance (what is considered the first ever green bond, the European Investment Bank’s “Climate Awareness Bond”, was created in 2007), but one that… Read More »
The importance of public policy has increased for investors since 2015, when governments committed to shifting trillions of dollars to be consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement and to increase investments in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Further, investors have accepted the influence of ESG factors on delivering financial returns, recognizing the need… Read More »
Demand for infrastructure investment continues to ramp up amid growing commitments to a low-carbon future and rapid economic growth in developing countries. The nature of this “scaling up” challenge requires capital that governments cannot provide alone, necessitating the utilization of private capital. Institutional investors collectively possess the financial resources ($16 trillion in “direct” investment capacity)… Read More »
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